Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 December 2021
246. Deputy Matt Shanahan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of forestry licences processed for the months of August, September and October 2021, in tabular form; the breakdown including felling, road access and afforestation applications; the percentage that have licences processed to the public and private sector owners; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59615/21]
View answerThe Department has issued a total of 3,603 forestry licences so far this year, which is 55% more than was issued for all of 2020 (2,592) albeit last year was a low output year. The table below represents the output for the months requested broken down by tree felling, afforestation and forest road works licences.
The Deputy will note the smaller number of licences issued in August, which was due to an interruption to outputs caused by the requirement to go to a second 30-day public consultation for cases subject to Appropriate Assessment. However, licence output has now returned to expected levels with an average of 116 licences issuing per week over the last 13 weeks to 26th November.
Finally, my Department has issued 813 private forestry licences in the months August to 26th November*, compared to 866 Coillte felling licences. The breakdown of licences issued each month to private/Coillte is in the table below and the percentage of Coillte licences issued of the total.
The Deputy may be aware that my Department publishes the Forestry Licensing Dashboard weekly, which is available on the Department’s website.
